Acadiensis/Volume 1/Number 2/A Monument and its Story
A Monument and its Story.
T the Church of England graveyard, in the suburbs of St. John, in that portion known as the southwest division, there stands a large granite monument, its base surrounded by a strong iron railing. Memorials of the dead are there in every direction, but that monument never fails to attract the attention of the passer by. Like many others, it is a monument with a history. The storms of half a century have somewhat marred its outlines, and defaced the long inscription cut upon it, but with patience the epitaph shown upon the following pages may be read, surmounted upon the east side by the coat-of-arms of Macdonell of Glengarry, and on the west by those of Macdonald of Glenaladale.
The story of this monument, as briefly told in the partially obliterated inscriptions, is of romantic interest. It is the old story of heroic constancy and unflinching loyalty which marked the early settlement of British America.
In the early summer of 1842, Her Majesty's 30th Regiment of Light Infantry arrived at Saint John, and relieved the 36th regiment in garrison. Colonel Harry Ormond commanded the 30th, and Captain Roderick Macdonald was paymaster. Both of these officers were born in British America—Colonel Ormond at Maugerville, New Brunswick, and Captain Macdonald at Prince Edward Island. Colonel Ormond was the only New Brunswicker who commanded an imperial corps stationed at Saint John. The 30th regiment became very popular with the citizens, and the officers assisted at all society events of those days. Very pleasant stories are yet related of many of their number.
Sacred
to the Memory of
Elizabeth Ranaldson Macdonald,
Wife of
Roderick Charles Macdonald,
Lieutenant Colonel
of the Castle Tioram Regiment of Highlanders
and
Paymaster of Her Majesty's 30th Regiment of Foot.
This pious, amiable and accomplished lady
was daughter of
Colonel Macdonell, Chief of Glengarry,
and heir to the forfeited titles of the Earls of
Ross in Inverneshire,
Scotland
Where she always manifested her patriotic
recollections by sincere attachments to
expatriated Scotchmen and Countrymen.
After fulfilling, in the true spirit of
Christian piety and feeling, the duties of
a Daughter, a Wife and a Mother,
at the summons of the Angel of Death,
she passed from this wold of trial
to the Bosom of her Saviour
on the 22nd day of December, 1842,
Aged 39 years.
A Devoted Husband
In Testimony of
His Undying Sense of the Uncommon Virtues
of his Beloved Wife and the
irreparable loss which her departure
has proved to himself and their infant children
erected this tribute to her worth,
with a view likewise, to commemorate the
heroism of two thousand of the Glengarry
Regiment, who were slain defending
Canada,
against the armies of the United States,
in the War of 1812, 13 and 14.
As also
to perpetuate the memory
of the
Chieftain of Glenaladale,
his father,
and the attachment of the Highlanders
who followed him, a their leader,
to Prince Edward Island,
in 1722.
He inscribes this Stone.
Captain Roderick Charles Macdonald, with whom our story is more immediately connected, was an enthusiastic Highlander, and early identified himself with the Scotch residents of St. John. He was the fourth son of John Macdonald, chief of the Macdonalds of Glenaladale,[1] who sold his ancient ancestral estate in the Highlands of Scotland, and in 1772 emigrated, with a large number of his clansmen, to Prince Edward Island. "After having finished his education in France, and his travels on the continent," Captain Macdonald entered the army in 1825. "There being no prospects of a war, and having no hopes of promotion, without giving large sums of money for the purchasing of advancement," he accepted a paymastership. When serving in Scotland, he met and wooed Elizabeth, the eldest daughter of Alexander Ranaldson Macdonell, chief of the Macdonells of Glengarry, a famous man in his day in the Highlands, where they were married. The Macdonells of Glengarry were Protestants, and Captain Macdonald was a Roman Catholic, but the difference in faith did not deter the ardent Highlander from forming the alliance, nor diminish his love for his wife.
Mrs. Macdonald accompanied her husband to St. John, and, during the time that the regiment remained, the family resided in a small dwelling that stood on Germain street, near the corner of Queen street, and many years after was the residence of Colonel Ormond.
The first mention of Captain Macdonald, after the arrival of the regiment, occurs in Donald Cameron's paper, The Weekly Observer, of November llth, 1842:
Highland Society.—We have been informed that at the late annual meeting of Saint Andrew's Society, in this city, Roderick Charles Macdonald, Esquire, chief of the Highland Society of Nova Scotia, attended, and produced a commission from the Highland Society of London, (of which he is a member), addressed to His Excellency the Lieutenant Governor and Hon. John Robertson, authorizing the formation of a branch of the parent institution in this city.
This was the beginning of a society which existed for many years, until incorporated with the St. Andrew's Society. To the formation of societies of that kind in British America, Captain Macdonald gave much of his time, and contributed financially as well as his slender resources would permit..
At Prince Edward Island he formed the Caledonian Society, which is still in existence, as well as several branch societies in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. These societies were established not only to perpetuate a love of Scottish nationality, but more particularly to diffuse and further the cause of education, then in a deplorable condition, among the colonists of Scotch descent.
"At Prince Edward Island alone," Captain Macdonald declared, " there were from ten to twelve thousand children, principally of Scotch descent, who then had no means, nor even a prospect of learning to read and write, and there were probably more than double that number in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Cape Breton in that melancholy situation." Under these circumstances we can understand and appreciate the generous motives that actuated Captain Macdonald. Nearly all of these societies have long ceased to exist, and the advance in educational methods has been so great that the difficulties which perplexed the philanthropic colonists of that day seem difficult to understand. But, nevertheless, they were the pioneers in a noble work, and deserve to be gratefully remembered by their countrymen.
In all the philanthropic and national measures in which Captain Macdonald engaged, he had the assistance and support of his wife, who was as ardent in her attachment to the Highland race as was her husband, and both made many friends throughout the provinces. But an unlooked-for affliction came to the warm-hearted Highlander, and the closing days of the year 1842 brought sorrow. On the 22nd of December in that year, Mrs. Macdonald, after a short illness, died, and was buried on Christmas eve. The event is thus chronicled by Donald Cameron in the issue of the Observer of December 31st:
On Saturday last the funeral of Mrs. Macdonald, the lamented and amiable lady of Captain Macdonald, 30th Regiment, took place, which was attended by a large number of the most distinguished members of this community. During the whole of Saturday the flag of the St. Andrew's Society was hoisted half mast high, as a mark of respect to the memory of the deceased lady. Among the pall- bearers were Captains Andrews, Sillery and Grant, of the 30th Regiment.
Captain Macdonald, who looked the picture of grief, was supported by Colonel Ormond and Major Poyntz. In the procession were the Saint Andrew's and Highland Societies with their presidents Dr. Boyd and Hon. John Robertson.
Mrs. Macdonald was born at Glengarry, in the Highlands of Scotland, and was the eldest daughter of Alexander Ranaldson Macdonell, chief of the ancient clan of Glengarry, by his wife Rebecca, second daughter of Sir William Forbes, Bart., of Pitsligo, Aberdeenshire. "The clan Macdonald, or Macdonell," writes Burke in his Landed Gentry of Great Britain and Ireland, "is undoubtedly one of the most ancient in Scotland, and can, by incontrovertible evidence, be traced back to a period co-eval with that of any family in the kingdom." Mrs. Macdonald was an accomplished woman, and there are still living in Saint John those who have a very distinct recollection of her, and also of Captain Macdonald. The early life of this lady, with reminiscences of her family, has been related in an article published in Blackwood's Magazine for September, 1893, entitled, "Glengarry and his Family Some Reminiscences of a Highland Chief," the contents of which are based upon the unpublished autobiography of Miss Macdonell of Glengarry, a younger sister, and from it we get a vivid picture of life in the Highlands of Scotland in the early years of the century.
Jonas Howe.
- ↑ The Macdonalds of Glenaladale, one of the cadet branches of the great clan of that name, became famous in Scottish history for their devotion to the fortunes of Prince Charles Stuart during the rising in 1745. The banner of Prince Charles was first unfurled to the breeze on Glenaladale's estate, at Glenfinnin, where a monument marks the spot.